David G. Victor is a professor of international relations and director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation.
His research focuses on highly regulated industries, such as electric power, and how regulation affects the operation of major energy markets.
He is author of Global Warming Gridlock, which explains why the world hasn't made much diplomatic progress on the problem of climate change while also exploring new strategies that would be more effective. The book was recognized by The Economist as one of the best books of 2011. Prior to joining the faculty at UC San Diego, Victor served as director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University where he was also a Professor at Stanford Law School and taught energy and environmental law. At Stanford he built a research program that focused on the energy markets of the major emerging countries—mainly Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Earlier in his career he also directed the science and technology program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and led the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria one of the first major assessments of the effectiveness of international environmental law. His Ph.D is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and A.B. from Harvard University. He has published 200 articles and books in venues that include Nature, Science, International Organization, The New York Times, Finance Times, Climatic Change, and the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. He is a member of the advisory council for Nature Climate Change, a board member of Climatic Change, and joined the board of the Electric Power Research Institute in 2013.